First, thanks for the terrific review. It would be very helpful to compare to the OMD EM5, as well as possibly the GX1. Lastly it would also be helpful to learn about white balance accuracy, particularly indoors. Regards, Fred

Hi Fred, interesting that you should mention the WB. That's actually been a bugbear of mine on previous Lumix G models, especially when there's a mix of natural and artificial light - they always seemed to come out too pink. So when shooting with the GX1 and G3, I normally shot in RAW and adjusted the WB manually if necessary.

But the Lumix G6 certainly feels better in this regard. The WB seemed to be much closer to what I'd want, and in most cases the in-camera JPEGs looked great. This is purely anecdotal though - I have no scientific comparison to back this up.

Hi Fred, Hi A.Ziffel, it's hard to comment on IQ with the OMD EM5 as I didn't shoot comparisons side by side. But it's something I'd like to try in the future. But I'm guessing they'd be quite close, I think the bigger differences are handling and features.

I prefer almost every aspect of the G6 over the OMD EM5 apart from the weather-sealing and built-in IS on the Olympus. Interestingly the OMD EM5 is smaller as well as tougher. It's a tough one to weigh up, you'd need to look very carefully at the feature-sets and see which better matched what you're into. I'll have a good long think and if I have time, add a proper feature-comparison on the review as I think others would find it useful too...

Again, thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to address the white balance. I asked for that very reason because I have been disappointed with my Olympus PEN WB performance when using for indoor shots--just nowhere as good as most point & shoots including the LX7 or S95. So part of my quest was to try to find another M43 body, perhaps in the Panasonic line) that would allow me to use all the great M43 lenses and be able to get dependable auto WB results. I just ordered a G5 hoping that the omission of WB in your G6 review meant is was good....

Unfortunately, if you have the budget, this speaks to needing a different camera for each type of shooting you do, as sometimes I just don't feel like grabbing, or don't have time, to grab the D600/700, 24-70mm & external flash combo for indoor candids, and fact that no matter how good M43's are, they aren't going to rival AF, etc. in a DSLR for sports, etc. So probably like many others with equipment OCD, I grab different stuff depending....for indoor candids S95/LX7 (& hopefully G5!); for landscape and street shots, my beloved PENS; for sports my D600 or D300, depending on focal length needed & venue....and when my wife & kids ask me why I need 7 bodies & 20 lenses, and why one camera can't do it all, I don't have an easy answer, or one they want to hear, LOL.

Thanks for replying on the OMD EM5. I wasn't going to say anything until you brought it up, but I sold mine recently. I wanted to like the camera, but nothing seemed intuitive at all and just could never get comfortable with it. I'm sure like many as impatient as I, the litmus test is if you can find all the functionality you typically need in under 5 minutes, and if you can't the camera goes back....I found menus daunting, etc. I love the PEN's jpeg quality, the rangefinder design, the art filters and the awesome lenses when doing landscape, creative and street, but the OMD EM5 just never became the camera I wanted it to be, so I could sell the PEN's and have one ultimate M43 camera (still searchng). I'm hoping the higher end Panasonics will feel as right & intuitive as their lower end LX7.

I can't comment on whether the G5 was better at WB than earlier models though. I think the only way to be safe is to shoot in RAW and adjust the WB later. But again I definitely noticed the G6 nailed the WB more confidently for interior portraits than my GX1 did.

LOL on "you sound like a man after my own camera!" It's become my quest and search for the holy grail!

Heck, now I have to return the G5 & get the G6! Tried to talk myself out of the Wi-Fi (you did sound smitten with that!) & other new features but since you're now guaranteeing that the G6 is now the "mother" of all M43's bodies LOL and is better on WB, I can cut my M43 bodies down from 4 to 1, right?

Where does the Lumix G1X fit in all this? I know it's not a new model, but how would you compare its handling, features and performance to G6? It certainly seems to have a keen audience. Is it a model you anticipate will receive an update soon?

The rumours suggest it may be updated later this year, but I have no information.

In the meantime the original GX1 represents terrific value, either as a standalone or a backup body. I used one for a year around the world and really loved its size, although I did miss the viewfinder and articulated screen of the single digit G series. You can of course clip on a viewfinder accessory to the GX1 but this loses much of its physical charm in my view.

Gordan, great review of the DMC-G6. In fact I went out and bought it on the strength of your review. I've spent the last week comparing the G6 w/14mm f2.5 to my Canon EOS M with Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM lens attached. It's not a fair fight I know, but I wanted to see if the Panasonic could hold it's own image quality wise. What I found was that in low light, above ISO 3200 the Canon definitely pulled ahead using out of the camera JPEG's. Above 3200 the noise reduction in the Panasonic was unusable for my purposes. In the daylight and such thing weren't so clear cut but with that Sigma lens, man it really .

I'd like to keep the G6 but want better image quality at all ISO's so this brings me to my question. It seems the G6 compares more closely to the Canon EOS M image quality and noise wise in RAW. Is there a standard noise reduction setting in Lightroom that I can run on all my images each time I import them into Lightroom that will perform better than the G6's internal NR? I'd like to automate this process as much as possible to avoid having to touch each and every pic to squeeze out the image quality I'm looking for.

I was initially thinking of buying a video camera for recording lectures/conferences (and short snippets of speech sometimes) but then met a professional videographer who had switched to DSLR.

It will mainly on the tripod, panning, sometimes close-up zooming etc.

I'll also be using it to take pictures too (also reason to go for hybrid option).

After reading your review, I was sold on the G6 and could not justify spending more for the GH3.

One big problem I've just come across now though is that it does not have a headphone jack! That's pretty important when recording speeches as you need to know if your wireless mics are picking up sound!

Now the GH3 does have a headphone jack. But don't think I can justify spending double the money just for that? Plus I preferred the smaller size and lighter weight of the G6 (so will spend to go heavier with the GH3). Don't think I'll use pro-editing features on it (not seen them yet though).

Is there anything more than the headphone jack that could justify spending the money for my uses?I have seen some video shots online of the GH3 shooting at 72mbps and they look outstanding. The G6 does maximum 28mbps. On some comparison videos though there is not much to set them apart? Is the video quality potentially superior?

Qadri, I was in the same situation as you and eventually ended up with a G6. I did buy the Canon 70D and lens but ultimately traded it in for a G6 because of the portability and image quality of the G6. The image quality of the G6 is close enough to APC sensors that I can let the small differences go by the way side. Not to mention the G6's many extra features.

The headphone jack isn't really an issue because the G6 has level meters that allow you to view what the mics are picking up. Plus you can use an external mic like a Zoom H1, 2, or 4n to record better sound and have headphone input. Sound wise using an external mic would be the preferred setup. For the difference in price between the GH3 and the G6 you could buy a Zoom H6 @ $399 or Zoom H4n @ $269 that would blow ANY DSLR's in camera audio processing and headphone monitoring solution out of the water.

As far as the video quality concerned I haven't been able to consistently see an appreciable difference between the two cameras. Certainly 72mbps is more than 28mbps, but what type of compression is used? All-I or IPB? All-I uses much, much larger files than IPB but from what I've read online doesn't provide any visible benefits. It's only benefit is that it's easier for an NLE (Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, etc) to process the files. I thought I would see a difference between the two formats too but now having seen and used All-I and IPB on my 70D, I can say with confidence and experience the IPB files look just as good as the All-I files. The All-I files are just massively larger.

All this leads me to the conclusion that yes the GH3 is a wonderful tool for the professional videographer, but for those of us who don't need timecoding, multiple recording formats and some other pro tools, the G6 is more than enough. Not to mention it has focus peaking, and stop motion, a better screen and EVF than the GH3. Two of those features you'll use everyday when you interact with the camera.

I understand that it has recording level meter but the sound can sometimes be fuzzy if your wireless mics are not connected properly.

So you mean use an external recorder and then sync the sound afterwards?

I do have a professional digital recorder: Olympus LS-10 (and have access to an LS-11) - super sound but syncing will be a bit of an extra hassle. I guess that's the trade-off?

In terms of your third paragraph, can you explain that to me more clearly and in simpler terms. I'm quite new to this coming from shooting on (semi-pro) mini dv and hard disk camcorders at highest setting. I was under the impression that the highest mbps and fps equals highest picture quality. Was reading today thought that many still prefer to shoot at 24fps. Need to learn more about this (I might be getting mixed up with video games).